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New gaming build for my son

sswilson

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Holy Cwap!!!! What's up with AM4 boards? The pricing is ridiculous.

I thought your quoted price looked a bit high for what's essentially a basic board, but no, MBs are just silly expensive. If I were you, I'd hold off for a sale to come up on a motherboard.
 

great_big_abyss

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Holy Cwap!!!! What's up with AM4 boards? The pricing is ridiculous.

I thought your quoted price looked a bit high for what's essentially a basic board, but no, MBs are just silly expensive. If I were you, I'd hold off for a sale to come up on a motherboard.
I dunno about that - Prices appear to be the same as they were in November 2021. I just checked the build thread for my personal rig upgrade, and an ASUS B550-F STRIX (Wifi) was going for $239.99. The same board is listed at $239.99 today.

I think the $174.99 for the ASUS Prime (wifi) is about where it should be - I can find non-wifi boards for $154, but that doesn't help me. Could I find something on sale if I wait a little? Yeah, probably. But by how much? $30? $40? $100? I don't know, and can't predict if the wait will be worth it.
 

great_big_abyss

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Alright, how about an Intel build? I swapped out the Ryzen 5600 for an i5 12600 (comes with a boxed cooler) and an MSI B660M-A (wifi).
I dropped the SSD back down to 1TB to keep the budget under control, but I think it works. Don't need the 3600Mhz Ram, so dropped down to some Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200Mhz. Still manage to sneak a 6700XT in there. Bumped the PS up to 750W to deal with the more power hungry CPU/GPU.


Would this be a better option than the Ryzen build?
 
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Bond007

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Alright, I did up another build, again focused around the 5600 - went with the cheapest mATX wifi board, an ASUS Prime, and a 2TB SN850 SSD.


I went with a smaller case, the Fractal Design Pop Mini Air, so that he can keep it on his desk, and up off the floor. It just so happens to have a tempered glass window and some LED fans, which is fine.

I bumped up the GPU to a 6700XT 12GB, as that's probably going to be the component that needs upgrading the soonest, so why not try to maximise now and delay the upgrade? Comes to $1657.85 + tax, or $1856.79 post tax.
Honestly if you are building now, that seems like a well rounded gaming machine for the budget IMO. I would probably spend the extra $5 and get the 750w version of the same G6 PSU, but otherwise it seems good.
 

great_big_abyss

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So, in summation, the options are:

An AMD 5600 build with a basic board, 2TB SSD, and a 6700XT for $1667.88 +tax - https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/hxDvDq
An Intel i5 12600 build with basic board, 1TB SSD, and a 6700XT for $1653.43 +tax - https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/LFNmNc

The slightly used i9 10900 build with high end components and case for $1000 shipped, plus a $6700XT for $609.98 +tax - This is the cheaper option, BUT, we don't get to choose the case, and warranty likely would be hard to chase down if required. I feel like the higher end motherboard and i9 would be wasted on my stepson, considering practically no tinkering or overclocking will be happening. Also, the 12600 has better gaming performance than a 10900.
 
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Solace

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Solace

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Valkyrie

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I voted for the used I9 system as it's perfectly competent for gaming, and with 20 threads will offer some endurance for the increasing thread hogging of OS's and app's. 5600 is a good chip and I have a 5600G and love it, but six core may run out of gas sooner than ten.

Good luck with whatever you choose.(y)
 

great_big_abyss

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We ended up going with the i5 12600 build, with a few substitutes as I wanted to order from Memory Express and have it all in one transaction:

Core i5 12600 - $297.35 (price beat)
MSI PRO B660M-A Wifi - $179.99
Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB 3200 - $122.99 (price beat)
Samsung 980 M.2 SSD (pci-e 3.0) - $129.99
MSI Mech 2X RX 6700 XT 12GB - $639.99
EVGA SuperNOVA G6 750W - $119.99
Fractal Design Pop Mini Air RGB White - $134.99

Subtotal - $1625.29
Total - $1820.33

I went with the i5 because I already have an AMD system in the house, and the 12600 has similar price/performance as the 5600, so why not give it a try? The 12600 also ends up being quite a bit faster than the 10900 in gaming scenarios.

The Samsung SSD was a concession - I wanted to pick what Memory Express had in stock either locally or in their online store, and it was impossible to find a PCIe 4.0 SSD within budget, so I conceded to a PCI-e3.0 drive. This one ends up being cheaper to offset the more expensive video card. Certainly, there is no way my son will notice any lack of performance, and I'm really not worried about potential Samsung warranty issues - I've owned many SSD's over the last decade, and haven't had to warranty a single one.

The video card ended up being a little more expensive - it was a decision based on what was in stock and within budget at MemEx, and the increased cost is offset by the cheaper PCIe-3.0 SSD. I've also had many MSI graphics cards in the house, and have usually had great experiences with them.

Should be here in about a week. I'll post pics once it's built.
 
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